The String of Pearls; or, The Barber of Fleet Street — page 77: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

. , through her best affections to suffer so great an amount of sorrow, and to go eae Se ee Pe RETTRY URYAEOMD TOL OMEIS i* ORLY 1 eens gener asitnnsyarrs mt SIT phe heres THE STRING OF PEARLS. 69 and says I, ‘ Angelina, I find out that all cats have claws after all; good evening: _ and no more from your humble servant, who don’t mind the job of taming any wild animal but a woman;’ and then off I walked, and I never heard of her afterwards.” _ “Ah, Ben, it’s true enough! You never know them beforehand ; but after a little time, as you say, then out come the claws.” | & ‘They does—they does.’ i i eee tee 3 “And I suppose you since, then, made up your mind to be a bachelor for the rest of your life, Ben?” “OF course I did. After such experience as that, I shoald have deserved all I got, and no mistake, I can tell you; and if ever you catches me paying any atten- | Lshall be off at once like a shot.” | “Ah! said Mr. Oakley, with a sigh, “everybody, Ben, aint born with your - good luck, I can tell you. - You must have been born under some lucky planet I think, Ben, or else you never put the best face L could upon the matter.” ee Yes, that’s what learned folks call what’s its name — fill — fill —some- thing.” ' Philosophy, I suppose you mean, Ben.” | © Ah, that’s it—you must put up with what you can’t help, it means, I take it, _ It’s a fine name for saying you must grin and bear it.” ; “IT suppose that is about the truth, Ben.” : | Ttcannot, however, be exactly said that the little incident connected with Mr. Lupin had no good effect upon Mrs. Oakley, for it certainly shook most alarmingly her confidence in that pious individual. that he shrank from the horrors of martyrdom; and, indeed, to escape any a dation or humiliation that he could be subjected to; and that was, to the appre- gio ar of Mrs. Oakley, a great departure from what a saint ought to be. gain, her faith in the fact that Mr. Lupin was such a chosen morsel as he had Ben, the beef-eater ; so that, taking one thing in connexion with another, Mrs. Oakley was not near so religious a character after that evening as she had been before it, and that was something gained. ‘Then circumstances soon occurred, of which the reader will very shortly be fully aware, which were calculated to awaken all the feelings of Mrs. Oakley, if she had really any feelings to awaken, and | _ to force her to make common cause with her husband in an affair that touched him | to the very soul, and did succeed in awakening some feelings in her heart that had ' lain dormant for a long time, but which were still farfrom being completely des: _troyed. ‘These circumstances were closely connected with the fate of onein whom | we hope, that by this time, the reader has taken a deep and kindly interest—we - mean Johanna—that young and beautiful, andj gentle, creature, ,who seemed to | have been created with all the capacity to be so very happy, and yet whose fate ‘had become so clouded by misfortune,§ and who appears now to be doomed through so many sad difficulties. Alas, poor Johanna Oakley! Better had you loved some one of less aspiring feelings, and of less ardent imagination, than he possessed to whom you have given your heart’s young affections. It is true that Mark Ingestrie possessed genius, and perhaps it was the glorious light that hovers In the first place, it was quite clear | bodily inconvenience, was perfectly willing to put up with any amount of degra- | tion to a female woman, just put me in mind of Angelina Day, and you’!l see how | You are a most fortunate man, Ben, and that’s a fact. — would have had such a warning as you have had about the claws. I found ’em— out, Ben, but it was a deal too late; so I had only to put up with my fate, and Then | _ represented himself, was shaken from the circumstance that no miracle in the | - Shape of a judgment had taxen place to save him from the malevolence of Big | a ata ae eee Enea ST a A RR TE around that fatal gift which prompted you to love him. But genius is not only a ° Sten: blight and a desolation to its possessor, but it is so to all who are bound to the gifted being by the ties of fond affection. It brings with it that unhappy rest- lessness of intellect which is ever straining] afterfthe unattainable, and which is never content to know the end and ultimatum of earthly hopes and wishes ; no, the whole tgp NE TOMBE OODLE I ah pe A a eae costae eee = a oa a aOR I es teeta aN ee (eee comicbooks.com r eect ig RD ee nent a a i Tt a